Shamir, singer-songwriter

Shamir Bailey is an American singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia. 

Bursting into the stratos-queer in 2014 with "On the Regular", Shamir has since continually defined and redefined his musical language, visual identity, and artistry, on his own terms.

His latest album, Homo Anxietatum, is out on August 18th on Kill Rock Stars. It was an absolute pleasure to discuss Shamir's own queer musical influences for Tracks of Our Queers.

We explore music by Mykki Blanco, Tegan and Sara, and Tracy Chapman. You can follow Shamir on Instagram here.

Tracks of Our Queers is produced, presented and edited by Andy Gott.

You can listen to our Spotify playlist, Selections from Tracks of Our Queers, and find Aural Fixation in your favourite podcast provider. 

Transcript

Shamir
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Andy: [00:00:00] Hello, this is Tracks of our Queers. My name is Andy Gott, and each episode I'll talk to a guest about one song, one album, and one artist that have soundtracked their life as a queer person. 

Shamir Bailey is an outrageously eclectic artist from Las Vegas and based in Philadelphia.

Exploring lo fi indie rock, country, electropop, and more across eight prolific albums. Exploding into pop consciousness in 2014 with The Viral on the regular, Shamir has since defined and continually redefined his artistic voice on their own terms. 

I absolutely adored his most recent album, last Year's Heterosexuality. But a new album produced with Hoost is just around the corner. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a rating or review in your app, or even better, tell a friend.

Tracks of our Queers is an [00:01:00] entirely independent production, so if you would like to help keep the podcast ad free, you can shout me a coffee via the link in the show notes. Every penny goes to episode production. 

Over to Shamir. 

hello Shamir. Welcome to Tracks of our Queers.

Shamir: Hi. Oh my god. Hi.

Andy: There's a lovely little rhyme to that. I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard Shamir and queer together, but it rolls off the tongue.

Shamir: Well it's sort of an insult in high school. People will call me Shaqueer. So that's what I call, like, my fandom, the Shakirs.

Andy: Incredible. Reclaim. Now, where did you grow up and what were you listening to at home?

Shamir: I grew up in North Las Vegas which is about 15, 20 minutes from the strip, but I was super uber north, like literally where my high school was it was just mountains, like you couldn't go any more north. [00:02:00] And yeah, it was really dusty, it was kind of suburban, but still very diverse, which was my favorite thing about my upbringing. It's very like, Southwestern, dusty cowboy vibe. So I grew up with a lot of country, obviously. My family love like, R& B and slow jams. And even though I was raised Muslim, they also love gospel and Christian music.

And I think me too as well. It's I often chalk it up to the fact that my My grandma was a covert to Islam and we were like the only people in our family who wasn't Christian. And so I think having, you know, our ancestors be Christian, , that was always kind of instilled in us or like a part of us in a weird way.

So, yeah, I feel that same kind of like connection to gospel music as well. 

And then around middle school I started streaming very early, even before Spotify because it was just so appealing to [00:03:00] me, because from the get go I always loved music and...

I would, beg my mom to buy me CDs every week, but you know, that could get expensive. So when I saw, this opportunity, I'm like, Ma, it's like one CD per month and I can listen to everything. And I would just go down rabbit holes and listen to this, like, weird experimental shit at a very young age because I didn't really have friends, too.

I was very introverted. 

So I started with the weird stuff first at a very young age, and then I didn't really kind of get it out the way, you know? And I think that was great for me, too, because, like, I didn't make it a part of my personality. Like, it wasn't, to like seem cool in front of a specific crowd, right?

It was just something that I did by myself because I didn't have any friends. And then once I started making friends in high school because in high school I decided to be popular and that's actually when I started to get into pop music and more accessible stuff.

Andy: It's remarkable to hear a recording artist like yourself actually speak of [00:04:00] some of the pros of streaming, because we know that there's many challenges with streaming with artists making... Barely anything from it in terms of a living but you hit the nail on the head in terms of if you are A curious young person or any age really if you're curious to be able to access the entire recording catalog of the human race at the click of a A mouse is quite remarkable in terms of technology and exposing people to Unbelievable diversity of material.

So there's a lot of cons, but there are pros I think

Shamir: Yeah, I'm also, like, not anti streaming in the way that I think a lot of my peers are. I think just the way the companies are ran, and and The model is what's broken because the idea is very great and I think and I see a lot of people like Buy physicals you support the artists more and and you do kind of upfront [00:05:00] But I know when I buy physical copies it is to support Up front, but on the back end, I try to stream as much because you're not getting paid per play when you buy physical, right?

And so I think both should be done. I don't think it's a one and other. I don't think one is it's better than the other. 

And I think That has hurt it in a lot of ways in a sense that like, you know, now people are making music for the algorithm Which I think is terrible. So, you know, there's pros and cons to everything, but I hope that I still am somewhat of a champion for streaming just because I know what it did for me and how it changed my life and I hope that even if it's just a few people, doing that for them now still. well,

Andy: is how myself and i'm sure many people discovered you

Shamir: you know, I'm I've been in the game a while, I've been in the game a while and I, I entered the game at a [00:06:00] time when it really started to become mainstream and I think that's like the funny thing about even like my fan base and everything because it's really 50 50.

I've been in the game for a long enough to have been a part of the absolute first Apple Music streaming campaign. Ever. That was like, 2015. So, I will say that I look at some of the newer artists who's come after me, I'll And they really are a little bit more in debt to the algorithm than I think I am. Um, I think I still have a lot more old heads who found me in a more traditional way.

Andy: So you're about to enter a new album cycle, which is very exciting. But the, the album that I've been immersed in for the last few weeks is your most recent album, which came out over a year ago, Heterosexuality. Also...

It strikes me as an incredibly prolific career that, since you began recording, you've released, is it, eight studio albums?

Shamir: Yeah, [00:07:00] and then this one will be my ninth.

Andy: I'd love to know, what headspace were you in when you were writing the album Heterosexuality and what led you to that fabulous troll of an album name?

Shamir: Heterosexuality. In a lot of ways. It reminds me... of my kind of unofficial second album, Hope, which I also recently repressed. And that album was made in the midst of a psychotic episode and really, hit a restart button, not only on my music career, but also in my personal life.

And it was really difficult. But, it felt really necessary in a lot of ways, and I felt like, it was like a rock bottom that needed to be hit, and I only had grown from there. 

And I look at heterosexuality in a similar light. I think it's done similar things for me. I don't think I was at a rock bottom. I was actually very much on the opposite of a rock bottom.

I was, off the [00:08:00] heels of my most popular record since my debut, my self titled, which is the one previously before heterosexuality. And, you know, that one got... So much praise. And it was on all of these like year end list and it, you know, that's some of the most dreams I ever got. And it was just like, and then it was all so self-released too.

So it was just such a huge feat all, all around it. I was, and in, in the midst of Covid as well, you know, so the pandemic happened and I was like, oh, fuck shit. I was just like, I'm still gonna do this. And I remember from The first Single I came out all those people who had passed on me or ignored me and everything were in my emails and my DMS you know and it was a good feeling, but it was also so lonely and so bittersweet because I saw myself at the end of all of these, best stuff lists next to all of these people who had funding and labels and yet, I was not offered deals.

I was not, I was not getting any other [00:09:00] offers. Like, at all. And so I think that morphed into heterosexuality, which even though I was at a peak in my life, there was so much frustration.

And you know, a lot of had to do with my identity, even some of the few opportunities that I got from self titled I remember one of them was a collab with Fender guitars, and I remember, you know, been so excited about that and doing that and getting so much just transphobic and homophobic hate in the comments and it really was just sad and scary to me because I'm like this is exactly why I don't get opportunities because it's such a high risk because people are so hateful.

And all I did was say, Hi, my name is Shamira and I played my song. None of my opinions were stated, like, you know, nothing. That's where the frustration from heterosexuality had came about. And upon the release of the album It put a lot in perspective, even just in my personal life and just [00:10:00] Just the way that, like, people kind of, like take This like, pure, unconcentrated queerness, right?

It doesn't even have to have a statement, I don't think there was a political statement behind heterosexuality realistically. 

I think it was just the fact that, It doesn't have an air of pride around it, because it's not about pride, right?

It's about my experience, and a lot of times that's not rainbow colored.

Andy: It absolutely comes through. You mentioned that you grew up in a family where there was country.

I... Might just be completely imagining this, but the song Nuclear, when it opens, I feel like I'm listening to some kind of smooth kd Lang country jazz ballad in a smoky room.

Shamir: [00:11:00] No, for sure. Yeah. Has that vibe, a little bossa nova y. There's country influences in almost every single one of my albums, if you actually like look for it. I mean, I started off doing country. That was really my first love .

And again, I think one of the things that kept me away from that was, you know, Prejudice because I was going to the honky tonks and like everything around. Las Vegas, and every single time everyone looked at me like I was insane. I was blessed enough to have grown up in a household and a family that was very accepting.

Andy: Yes.

Shamir: So when I went out into the world and went out into these spaces, And I was constantly disappointed and triggered and, and let down because once I leave outside my house, it's a struggle, I'm always going to have to state my case. 

So it's a double edged [00:12:00] sword, right? I feel blessed to have grown up in the household and with the family that I have, but it almost kind of makes going out into the world that much harder, you know what I mean? Which I think anyone who ever has like any level of privilege, right?

Once they go out into the real world, it's like hard, you

know? 

Andy: Aside from your explorations in streaming, did you have anyone in your life, an individual who was a kind of musical guiding star or mentor, someone who you went to to learn more about music from?

Shamir: I was that person for everyone.

Andy: I love that.

Shamir: I really dedicated my life to, I'm a music nerd. That's why I always call myself a music nerd. 

I was the kid that would like, you know, I, I would find a new artist that I love, right? And then go to the Wikipedia immediately and, try to, learn everything about them and have so many useless tidbits and like I just I I love that and I'm glad too because it goes back to [00:13:00] what I said earlier like You know, I wasn't a part of, really any scene or, like, any kind of, community in that way.

I eventually found my community later on, but in the beginning, it was just, me just being so thirsty for it.

Andy: I'm so glad you're talking about this because I really do think this is quite common in in a great way I think a lot of queer People around our age. I'm a little bit older than you but coming up in that generation the excitement of discovering an artist or an album which you had previously no knowledge of and finding that you Deeply connected with the music and then thinking I mean, I'm just speaking from my own experience I remember when I discovered someone like Sade for

example Sade was someone who I knew in pop culture.

I I knew like Smooth Operator, for example but when I discovered her albums properly And fell in love with them and then was like, oh, there's like [00:14:00] six or seven of these to explore that excitement is just Unbeatable, and, and it's so powerful, I think, especially for queer people.

Shamir: I think it really is a generational thing for us. I fear the Gen Z queers don't have the same experience. You know, I have a younger sister who's 10 years younger than me. She's turning 18 in, like, This week, and she's queer as well, and I just feel like, you know, in the TikTok age, and, oh my god, it's so, so loud.

I'm so sorry. They decided to just start, just like, zooming around, like, as soon as I start recording. But, yeah, like, I just feel like in the TikTok world, they're kind of fine with indulging in things that are anonymous

whether that be clips and sounds or artists that, you [00:15:00] algorithm, but like, no one really knows who they are outside of like their one hit, you know what I mean? And we have one hit wonders, but they were still a package of like who the artist was around the music and the songs. You know what I mean?

Andy: I think you're onto something there, but I also do hope and pray that where there's a will, there's a way. And there's going to be thirsty, curious people in every generation. And hopefully, you know, you spring upon something on TikTok and most people would ignore it. But maybe there's that one person who thinks maybe I'm going to go to YouTube or Spotify and find out more about this one particular

Shamir: No, I think, I think it happens and it has happened. We've had a few cases. I think Olivia Rodrigo is like a perfect example. Because she's incredible. I remember the first time, when I heard driver's license, immediately, I was like, who is this?

Like, where did this come from? 

Like, I didn't even know her, like, from like, TikTok or Disney or like, you know what I mean? I'm too old. 

[00:16:00] And then it's just like her story, right? Once you do that research, the story is like, compelling. Because she's like, this young missing girl, and it's her first song, and she's in high school musical, or like whatever.

And I think, so many times, the story, Isn't that compelling? Because I think a lot of artists are so focused on, again, kind of making an algorithmic music, kind of trying to get the sounds, kind of trying to like, you know, beat the system, you know, you get the, hi, I'm an independent artist and blah, blah, blah, blah, and this is my song and it's about, have you ever felt like blah, blah, blah, blah, and then this song is for you and it makes, they're not even talking about themselves as an artist, right? Even in that pitch, they're like, it sounds exhausting, but it's like, it's no wonder why no one wants to know about you as the artist, because you're not even talking about yourself as an artist, right? You're talking about the song, you're talking about, you're pitching this.

So it's hard. It's hard these days.

Andy: This sounds exhausting. You are, [00:17:00] of course, a queer musician. And for your selections, you've chosen three different queer artists, which

Shamir: Well, you know, I thought that that, I thought they had to be, so that's why I did that. I didn't realize that it was like very open ended, but no, but that's even better. Who cares? Like, we 

Andy: okay. Yeah, we love it. We're staying with it.

Shamir: Yeah.

Andy: How, how has the relationship between the art you create And your identity as a queer person, how has that evolved over your career?

Shamir: Not much, honestly. I mean, I've been asked this question so many times, right? Obviously. And I think the one that I always, you know, kind of say it's like, it doesn't, it doesn't, You know what I mean? In the same way that, like, me being Black does and doesn't inform my music, right?

Like, of course it does because of, like, my outlook, but my music is inherently pro Black. And same thing, my music is inherently pro queer. Or, or just queer, you know what I mean? It's [00:18:00] just a part of me that informs the art that I make that is just from my perspective no matter what part of my identity comes into play at the time that I'm creating.

Andy: That's a perfect segue into your selections. Can you tell me the track that you picked and why?

Shamir: I chose Haze Boogie Life by Mykki Blanco and yeah, I'm not sure what kind of artist I would be or like, Or just, I mean, I already have very little confidence, like, in the beginning of, my career. But even just a slight bit that I had to get through it, I'm not sure that I'd be here if it wasn't for Mykki.

Like, I remember just seeing that video and, seeing, her dress more feminine, more masculine, and it just seeming so effortless. 

[00:19:00] so much previous queer representation, right, is kind of centered around shock, which is, cool in a lot of ways, and some would argue that that was the case for Mykki, for certain things, yes, but for that music video, it just seems so quintessentially her, like There was nothing shocking about it.

It was just fabulous. 

It was refreshing to see that, to see this person in their gender fluidity spitting, you know, very well. The song is incredible. She's spitting bar after bar after bar. And And it doesn't matter because it's just such a great track and yeah, that will just always be so [00:20:00] formative for me.

Andy: Do you remember how old you were when you first heard it?

Shamir: Like sophomore junior in high school. I know I definitely found it like I think like on like Tumblr. So those are like my like main Tumblr days.

Andy: I think it's cool that you picked, one of those genuine hip hop queer pioneers. although She doesn't necessarily love that label herself, and maybe more identifies from, you know, a punk, Riot Grrrl 

background, 

Shamir: yeah.

Andy: but even that in itself is, discarding these labels that people insist on to make them digestible to understand the music more, and it's like actually no, you're assuming that.

Shamir: She's, such a multifaceted artist, you know what I mean? I think she's like, she's like in a fucking metal band right now or something or whatever, like, you know, in her last album, it's like, you know, very like, shoegazy, so That's also one of the other things that, I saw just even in that video and that time, like,[00:21:00] so much kinship in that way.

Andy: Yes, kinship. That's an important word. Now, that album. I'd love to know why you picked this album and what it is.

Shamir: The con. I mean, Tegan and Sara. I mean, come on. Like, even though that album was very, very popular, I often think about how the reviews were mixed at the time, which is disgusting. But, I really feel bad for The generation of queers that just didn't have this, that just didn't have the con.

Like, I just, you know, and we still have Tegan and Sara. They still are around, but it's just, the con is one of those things where you had to have been there. And it just unblocked something in me. Maybe more so, people who identify more on the sapphic side of [00:22:00] things, but still, it was just such a game changer for me.

It still is. Still sounds so fresh. And I feel so blessed to know them as well

I have a tattoo inspired by a song from the con and they knew that and asked me to do do a cover for the 10 year anniversary of that specific song because they knew of my tattoo which I thought was extremely sweet and that they even remembered so this album is quite literally Etched into my DNA at this point like it just and it's my Bible as far as I'm concerned

Andy: What shifted in your understanding of music or artistry? From pre the con to 

Shamir: Mm 

hmm, Well pre to con I was listening to a lot of [00:23:00] feminist post punk in a late 70s early 80s I remember One of my core memories, I remember walking into class, listening to Lydia Lunch, and blasting it in my earphones, and my teacher in class, like, staring at me, like, terrified, and they're like, and I'm like, what's going on?

Like, I take my headphones out, I'm like, is everything okay? And they're like, what are you listening to? Like, they were so concerned. 

And so I think that kind of, feminine aggression that I was already into previously paired with, like, the queer perspective, but also paired with the more modern, production sensibilities, the stuff that leans more towards the emo sound of that day. But, yet it still does not feel in debt to that era,

and it still sounds so [00:24:00] timeless.

That is not easy to do. And even before I got into pure pop, it was one of the first things that made me realize I can take the more, esoteric, alternative influence that I had and make it accessible.

Andy: I found it remarkable that the album, The Con, as a whole feels very coming of age to me, but it's not their coming of age album necessarily. It was their fifth studio album. They'd, they'd had a very decent career before The Con, but maybe it is imprinting in that I discovered this album when I was like 16, 17, you around a similar age. It feels like a coming of age album for me. And there's these very coming of age songs on it. I get this crazy rush of Teenage yearning and angst and and [00:25:00] pining from 19. 

19. just is that teenage, Oh my gosh, I'm in love with you but it hurts so bad.

Shamir: And it's so funny because they were like pushing 30. But they always, you know, they always had a way of conveying that energy. I think it's even funny that they are so self aware of that as well themselves because on the following album. There's a song on there called On Directing. You know, go steady with me. I know it turns you off when I get talking like a teen. 

That, like, self awareness is so funny to me. I love that. And I think, the combination of that inherent almost teen like brattiness that they always kept with them paired with the Wisdom that they [00:26:00] gain later on in life, it was just a perfect harmony 

and it gave us the con because you still have that like very fresh, young, uncontained teen angst but it's way more nuanced.

Andy: You've nailed it and that's why I think maybe us as teenagers were looking to this thing which had a sense of wisdom and you're gonna get through this but I know exactly how you're feeling but this doesn't last forever. But now also as we're closer to their age, well I'm now older than they were when they wrote it it's masterful how you can still tap into just as easily those heady teenage feelings too.

Shamir: And you know what? We needed that because as I mentioned It came out during a time where, you know, a lot of that, that emo ish, you know, I hate my own child, mom and dad, blah, blah, blah, like, it was very, even as a teen, that shit was just so... elementary to me 

and [00:27:00] I think you know the con was very not that it had the same energy but it's way more nuanced it wasn't just a whiny fucking man it was better and that's why it lasted you know what I mean

Andy: Perspective. Maturity. Okay the artist. Who did you pick and why?

Shamir: I mean, Tracy, it's Tracy Chapman. Even before I even, knew what I was as a child, I mean, I wasn't thinking about gender and sexuality as a child.

Certainly a lot of people were starting to project things onto me when I was just trying to vibe, obviously. But, I remember seeing Tracy Chapman like on TV at a very young age. And being confused. And I remember asking my mom, I was like, Is this a boy or a girl? And, I remember her just so, Calmly, like, whatever, it's like, Oh yeah, no, that's Tracy Chapman, that's a girl, like, whatever. [00:28:00] 

And it was just like, very interesting to me that, Her response was so, chill, because, you know, as a child, so we're just accepting that?

You know what I mean? We're just, I have more questions. I have further questions. And I think it was, really intriguing for me too, because so many things were pushed on to me in a lot of ways. 

One of my earliest memories. My mom had a friend that she grew up with, son, come over and I was playing with, like, another girl and he didn't want to play with us and they were like, well, Shamir's in there and he's, like, not a girl and he was like, no, Shamir is a girl and I was like, no, I'm not, like, what's going on?

You know what I mean? And I think, Tracy was the first time that I felt on the other end of that, on the receiving end of that, realizing that breaking of the constructs that I had been taught up to that point. And the fact that she was able to be this very androgynous, deep voice lesbian.

[00:29:00] Making music at the level that she was and absolutely dominating. 

Not too many people can even do that now and the fact that she was doing it in the 80s is really such an anomaly. But thank fucking god she existed. 

I remember seeing, this, TikTok, doing a scroll, and it was like, best female pop vocal. It was all these people in this category, including her.

And even when I was reading the nomination, she got the biggest applause. And then she won. And she's just like wearing a fucking leather jacket. Giving you know, sapphic realness. And I'm just like, this was in the 80s. Like, this is incredible. And she's black.

Like, this is incredible. Like, I don't think we marvel about what Tracy Chapman did enough. You know what I mean? Especially in America, where they're trying to take us back to the fucking 50s, and she was [00:30:00] doing this in the 80s, and who's, breaking that glass ceiling right now, not only as far as like black queer people, but to be a, you know, a black queer woman?

That's not easy.

Andy: And so enormous the number of records that she sold is astronomical in comparison to what people sell today 

Shamir: And she did it by being a thousand percent authentically herself.

Andy: completely herself yes this story is about, that first enormous self titled album about how she was discovered. But then, of course, the record label tried to change who she was and the tale as old as time that we've heard. And she didn't, they didn't change it. She didn't change it.

What is on that album is what she was performing in those coffee shops for years. And that's what resonated with people.

Shamir: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andy: I think it's important that we do call out that Tracy is officially not on record herself discussing her own queer identity. But, 

she was outed by, 

Shamir: [00:31:00] what? 

Andy: There's no record of Tracy Chapman confirming her own

identity. 

Shamir: Oh. My. This is like, this is like, this is like a Bear

Andy: Stop.

Shamir: Steens Bear situation, like, what? This is very, oh.

Andy: stuff hehehehehehehehehehe ahahahahahahaha

Shamir: This is, this has changed a lot for the game.

Andy: ah ah ah 

Shamir: Oh, okay, well, well, yeah, sure,

Andy: buuuut but, she has been outed by her former partner Alice Walker, so

Shamir: yeah, we did, well, 

Andy: partner's account but, 

Shamir: Not Alice outing her, that's very nasty of her, wow. Oh my god, the loop that I've just gone through, like her not confirming her sexuality and then Alice being evil and outing her, 

that's crazy, 

Andy: it's an, 

Shamir: in. 

Andy: it's an, enormous thing to unpack and I, I [00:32:00] cannot, you know, how do I say this? Alice Walker, Tracey Chapman, could have been one of America's most visible public couples. And for whatever reason, they didn't want to be, which is completely respectful. But when people like, you know,

Shamir: again, the time as well, you know, like, yes,

Andy: with Alice Walker outing her, but there is something to be said in different eras People outing or being outed in terms of oh gosh This is not going to go in the podcast because I'll be cancelled immediately

Shamir: yes, 

But I want to hear, because this is very interesting, 

because this is very like nuanced, you know.

Andy: I can understand why people would out others for the quotation marks greater good in terms of if America knows that you are queer that 

helps queer representation. 

Shamir: Well, what's the greater good? Because, like, literally up until now, I didn't know that she wasn't necessarily [00:33:00] officially out, and I think the representation still did what it needed to do, but also, I was young, you know what I mean? So, I don't know. I do think that, maybe she's like the 80s version of Harry Styles, you know what I mean?

But no, I don't think it's the same thing. Because I think the thing that annoys me about Harry Styles is that he's playing the wink wink game. And I think with Tracy, it's less of a wink wink game and more so self preservation, 

Andy: completely, that is the complete difference, but to bring it back to you as that young person watching her on TV, 

and looking at your mum with confusion as to like, mum you're so flippant about the way that you say she's a she, but are you looking at what I'm looking at?

The queer coding of Tracy Chapman was so obvious to us as young queer kids, I imagine. Do you think it was clear to people like your mum, or my 

mum, or, you know, straight 

people? Do you think it [00:34:00] was obvious to them? 

Shamir: Well, certainly my mom. My mom had queer friends growing up and I think, somewhere down the line, she explained to me that she was gay. She's a hip heterosexual You know what? I mean? She's a she gets it. She's down. Like she's She's you know, she's a tarot card reader if that makes any sense. Like she's very much that vibe. 

Andy: I don't know Where she is right now, but Tracey, we miss you, 

Shamir: Well, you know, she, before I'm talking about a revolution.

What, was it in 2020 after the election? 

Or maybe before it, somewhere around that time. So that was nice, she came out of her 

hole for that. 

Andy: let's just maybe wrap up this segment with that, because you 

quote, 

you throw in a little hint to 

Tracey 

Shamir: yeah, I say, and it's a reference to talking about a revolution. I say, I ain't Tracy Chapman, but revolution's on its way, in my very anti capitalist, little rap called Abomination. [00:35:00] 

Andy: What's next for Shamir? 

Shamir: so the last album was called Herosexuality. This album is called Homo Excitatum,

which has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality. It literally just means Man or in my mind, think anxious bitch, and, just my debut on kill rock stars, which I'm super excited about. Yeah.

Andy: Legendary.

Shamir: Legendary. You know, I made the record in London last year and it's like spent a whole month in London in Hackney with my friend, Justin, who worked on like my last two records in some kind of way, but we met because he produced a track that I, um, did with Rina Sawayama. 

And it was, you know, not only. Our first time working together on a whole album from beginning to end, [00:36:00] but it's also our first time meeting in person because you know, since he had lived in London, everything was always done remotely. So to me, this album feels like such a celebration of our friendship and our working relationship and that summer in 

London. 

Andy: wait to hear it. You mentioned at the start of our conversation that the story of Heterosexuality began with the album before it with your self titled

Do you maybe see the self titled? The following album and your new one as some kind of trilogy or is there a relationship between them or is the new album?

You know firmly a new direction

Shamir: I kind of tend to do these things. Where my album titles are connected, but it's always so naturally, my Hope, Revelations, Resolution run felt somewhat like a trilogy to me.

And I feel like those are all kind of like sister records in that way. Hope was definitely me [00:37:00] struggling for hope. And then, Revelations is me. Getting the answers to a lot of those questions while I was searching for hope and in resolution,

and so I think that, this little stretch of, heterosexuality, homo excietatum, Who knows what the next one, how that will connect with the title as well. like that naturally. 

Andy: Well be prepared to talk about that 

many many times in your 

upcoming 

Shamir: Yeah, this is like, yeah, this is this is the first where I really kind of been able to delve into it like deeply. So 

thank you for workshopping that with me. Wow. 

Andy: I loved it. I loved this whole chat and I'm gonna let you go soon, but is there a queer 

charity or initiative 

that you'd like to give a shout out to? Thank 

you 

Shamir: Mermaids, which is, a British organization for, specifically trans youth, and , I recently did a charity remix for them, and that's how I found out about the organization. And I specifically wanted to shout out a [00:38:00] UK organization because, you know, like, you know, things to UK, it's like crazy, so 

yeah. 

Andy: for sharing that. Well, 

Shamir: Yeah. 

Andy: you are 

queer and thank you 

very much for your tracks.

Shamir: Thank you. 

Andy: You can find out more about Shamir and their latest album in this episode's show notes Or you can follow them on Instagram at at Shamir 326 This episode was produced recorded and edited on unceded Gadigal land by me Andy Gott You can email me at tracks of our careers at the gmail.

com You can follow the podcast at tracks of our careers on social media. And if you're not already, please subscribe See you next time[00:39:00]